30 Tips to Cultivate #SoftSkills in Your #Students | InformED #skills #education

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Preparing students for successful careers is a major part of every educator’s job, but most preservice and professional development programmes don’t cover the skills employers are currently seeking–things like “emergent” leadership, adaptability, humility, and ownership.

At Google, hiring managers don’t care whether a candidate received perfect grades, served as president of the chess club, or even finished university. What they do care about–and what a rapidly increasing number of organisations care about–is soft skills like the ones mentioned above.

We need to be giving students more than a sum of knowledge reflected by a piece of paper. We need to be giving them the tools they need to be resourceful in a socially perceptive way, to innovate not just alone in a lab but with a group of colleagues, and to adapt when new requirements arise. READ MORE: 30 Tips to Cultivate Soft Skills in Your Students | InformED.

5 Effective Ways to Market to #Millennials | Mashable #marketing #branding

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As a baby boomer, I’ve seen media trends come and go, and the millennial generation has presented entirely new challenges to the field of marketing. But, I’ve spent much of my career figuring out how to sell products to different types of people, and with age comes the knowledge and attitude not to be put off by something new.

There is no question that marketing is changing — newspaper advertisements, television commercials and direct mail don’t have the influence they once had. Millennials have changed all that, collectively drawing marketers’ focus toward online and mobile marketing.

Paradoxically known for both brand loyalty and short attention spans, millennials are truly unique. Here are five ways marketers can reach them and be heard. READ MORE: 5 effective ways to market to millennials | Mashable

Can These Tiny #Robots Teach Fourth Graders How To Code? | Fast Company #coding #kids #tech #makerspaces

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I’m in a laboratory at Drexel University watching a remote-controlled robot do a spastic breakdance across the floor. The fist-sized, brightly colored bot looks simple enough: It has two wheels, two antennae, and what appears to be a friendly face. But it has a mission much bigger and more ambitious than its tiny form factor: This thing wants to teach kids how to become programmers.

This freewheeling toy android comes from a young startup called LocoRobo. Its moves are set using a mobile app that allows the user to program simple actions: go forward, accelerate, spin around, stop. And while plenty of kids would be content to play with a smartphone-controlled toy robot, LocoRobo wants to let them dig much deeper into the code and sensors that make it work. READ MORE: Can These Tiny Robots Teach Fourth Graders How To Code? | Fast Company | Business + Innovation.

35 Hilarious #Books Guaranteed To Make You Laugh Out Loud | BuzzFeed #fiction #nonfiction #funny

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35 Hilarious Books Guaranteed To Make You Laugh Out Loud

We recently asked the BuzzFeed Community about the funniest books they’ve ever read. Here are their favorite laugh-out-loud recommendations. READ MORE: 35 Hilarious Books Guaranteed To Make You Laugh Out Loud | BuzzFeed.

The Case For Letting #Kids #Design Their Own #Play | Co.Design #identity

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For better or worse, products and the designed world are used as tools for self-determination. In childhood, toys become part of a playful process of becoming ones’ self. Child psychologists have known for decades that through play, children learn empathy, “try on” identities, and experiment with their place in the world. Essentially, in childhood we play our way through discovering who we are. Unfortunately for kids today, the designed world doesn’t leave much room for them to explore. Most toys come with pre-defined identities and stories, which rob children of the joy of imagining these things. There is also a dearth of open-ended toys, or toys without instructions and right and wrong answers. This leaves few opportunities to figure out how to use a toy, experiment, fail, and invent the story of where it came from, and why it does what it does. READ MORE: The Case For Letting Kids Design Their Own Play | Co.Design | business + design.

‘What Did You Expect?’ #Women in #Tech Reflect on Ellen Pao’s Exit from Reddit | The Guardian #genderequality #sexism #women #trolls #trolling

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Leading women in the tech industry say the Reddit CEO’s resignation shows Silicon Valley still has a woman problem but some feel attitudes are changing fast. READ MORE: ‘What did you expect?’ Women in tech reflect on Ellen Pao’s exit from Reddit | Technology | The Guardian.

This is Your Brain on #JaneAusten, and Researchers at Stanford are Taking Notes | Stanford News #books #reading #neuroscience #cognition

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Researchers observe the brain patterns of literary PhD candidates while they’re reading a Jane Austen novel. The fMRI images suggest that literary reading provides “a truly valuable exercise of people’s brains.” READ MORE: This is your brain on Jane Austen, and researchers at Stanford are taking notes | Stanford News

Lena Dunham Is Launching A Newsletter For #YoungWomen | BuzzFeed @lennyletter #feminism #women #slownews #newsletters

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Another “slow news” entrant. I subscribe to the theSkimm newsletter but often wish it had more depth to its content like NextDraft, which I find too long at times. Lenny might be exactly what I’m looking for. I’m all for women supporting other women in any way they can!

“Lenny” wants to provide contemporary feminism for the inbox. READ MORE: Lena Dunham Is Launching A Newsletter For Young Women | BuzzFeed News.

43 #Free Career-Advancing #Courses You Can Take (And Actually Finish) This Summer | Mashable #skills #education #MOOCs

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Yes, summer is the perfect time to relax and recharge. But, it’s also the perfect time to pick up a few new skills. Put that relaxed brain (and work schedule) to good use! How accomplished would you feel if, when September rolls around, you could open up your resume and add another skill to it? Very, we’re guessing.

Before you start stressing, know that we’re not asking you to sacrifice your summer nights to a droning professor. Instead, we’re suggesting devoting a few hours every week to advancing your career with an online class. (Online equals your couch and your sweats and an optional glass of wine.)

To make the process easier for you, we did two things. One, we only chose classes you can complete in less than 10 weeks (with some that can be completed in an hour). Two, we hand-curated this list to ensure it’s only courses that are valuable and interesting. The best part? All of them are free. So, without further ado, here are 43 classes you can sign up for today.

READ MORE: 43 free career-advancing courses you can take (and actually finish) this summer | Mashable

4 Things That Will Never Happen When You Become a Librarian | hls #librarians #libraryschool #MLIS

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So here it is my final blog post for Hack Library School. As I type these words on the keyboard, my eyes are flooded with tears…of joy! It means that by now you have another set of awesome writers who are sharing wonderful insight to a new generation of LIS students. READ MORE: 4 Things That Will Never Happen When You Become a Librarian | hls.